


You Are All That I Need

by lynnearlington



Category: Glee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-22
Updated: 2010-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-20 13:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynnearlington/pseuds/lynnearlington
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Santana Lopez has two deep, dark secrets. One, she's in love with her best friend and two, she plays guitar like a motherfucking riot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Are All That I Need

Santana Lopez has two deep, dark secrets. One, she's in love with her best friend and two, she plays guitar like a motherfucking riot. 

Seriously. She's totally badass at guitar. 

To be fair, she's not entirely sure these things count as secrets because Brittany knows about both of them, but she figures that everyone has to have someone who knows all their secrets so it probably still counts. She's actually pretty impressed that Brittany hasn't told anyone about either thing because Brittany is easily the worst secret-keeper in the entire world. 

But, it's been years since Brittany found out and she's yet to have Rachel Berry pounding on her door demanding she start playing her guitar at glee club, so she assumes Brittany's been able to keep her mouth shut. 

The whole 'in-love-with-Brittany' thing is really old news. They've known each other since kindergarten and they've barely spent a moment apart ever since. She tells Brittany  _I love you_  when they're only twelve and she hasn't stopped saying it since. 

The awesome Jimi Hendrix impressions, however, don't start until later. Not until their freshman year in high school. 

And it's totally Puck's fault. 

\--

She and Puck start this whole weird not-dating-but-kind-of sexual relationship when they get into high school and it's fun for a while, it definitely helps her climb the social ladder, but Puck's way more perceptive than people ever give him credit for. It doesn't take long for him to get suspicious of the way Santana is constantly ditching him when Brittany calls or how Santana never sticks around to hang out with him, but texts Brittany that she's coming over the minute he pulls out. When he catches them in the middle of a rather heated make out session one afternoon under the bleachers, he puts it all together pretty fast. 

At first he's pretty indignant. Not that she blames him. But then Santana learns that Noah Puckerman? Totally underrated. 

"Fuck, Lopez. Britt's hot. The thought of you two doing the nasty is totally going in my spank bank," he tells her one night. 

"Shut the hell up, Puck," she retorts, but there's a smile on her face because this whole thing where someone else knows is kind of nice. 

"Listen," Puck says, laughing. "I just want you to know. I'm a shithead, yeah, but I'll keep your secret. What you do with Brittany is totally your business." He pauses before letting a leer cross his face. "Unless you want to tell me all about it, which I am totally game for." 

She punches him because it makes her feel better, but the smile is still on her face when she whispers, "Thanks," and she pulls him in for a hug that both of them will never admit happened. 

They keep hanging out but they stop sleeping together. Puck says its because he's not going to fuck someone that's getting off on the idea of someone else, but Santana sees right through that. Who knew Puck was such a decent guy? 

They get together a couple of times a week to keep up the pretense of dating or sexing or whatever because it's good for both of their images. So with nothing else to do Puck starts playing his guitar one day as they lounge around his room. Santana enjoys it the first couple of times, lying on his bedroom floor while he plucks out some song he heard on the radio that day, but one afternoon she sits up and demands out of the blue, "Teach me." 

And so he does. 

It starts out as something to just pass the time, but Santana quickly realizes that she kind of really enjoys it and she's actually really good. Not that she's surprised. She's Santana Lopez. Of course she'd be good. 

\--

For her birthday that year, Puck gives her one of his old classic acoustic guitars and a book full of sheet music that he doesn't need anymore. It's seriously the best gift she gets that year (aside, of course, from the awesome birthday sex she gets from Brittany later that night). The nylon strings totally wreck her fingers and she has to tune it every single day, but she's never loved anything more. 

When she brings the guitar home that night, and Brittany's in her room waiting for her like she always is, her best friend furrows her brow and tilts her head at the sight of it. 

"What's that?" 

"A guitar." 

"What's it for?" 

"For playing," Santana responds. 

Brittany rolls her eyes which makes Santana chuckle because Brittany really needs to work on her eye-roll. "I meant, why do you have it?" 

"I play," Santana answers, simply. 

"Since when?" 

"Since now." 

"Okay," Brittany says, sitting up and crossing her legs under her. "Play me a song," she demands with a shy smile. 

And that's how it starts. 

\--

The first song she ever plays for Brittany is  _Walk Away_  by Ben Harper, but halfway through the song Brittany informs her that it's too sad and demands that Santana only play her happy songs. So she plays  _The Way I Am_  by Ingrid Michaelson instead and Brittany smiles the whole way through. 

It becomes a routine. Every Saturday night Santana plays Brittany a song before they go to bed. She spends the whole week prior picking out the song and learning it and it's not long before she knows what kinds of songs will make Brittany smile and which ones make her sad and which ones make her kiss Santana the minute she puts the guitar down. 

On Saturdays when Brittany is particularly sad about something, Santana will play  _You Are The Best Thing_  by Ray LaMontagne and on Saturdays when Brittany is feeling really goofy, Santana likes to play  _Banana Pancakes_  by Jack Johnson. On Saturdays when it's Santana that's feeling particularly sentimental she'll play  _Gotta Have You_  by the Weepies and she loves the way Brittany scrunches up her nose adorably at the chorus. 

Sometimes Santana likes to sing in Spanish because Brittany always gets this look on her face when she starts playing  _Bonito_  by Jarabe de Palo. Brittany will bite her lip through the whole song and her hands will twist together in her lap and as soon as Santana's done playing Brittany usually grabs her by the back of the neck and tangles their lips together. 

"Spanish is sexy," Brittany will tell her later that night. 

Seriously, she is so badass at this guitar thing. 

\--

When Puck catches her in the choir room after school, leafing through sheet music that's stored there, he smiles knowingly. "Guitar never fails." 

"What?" 

"You're so getting laid more." 

"Ugh, you're so gross." 

"It's true though. Girls love that shit." 

She shoves him, because,  _ew_ , but she thinks her laughter takes all the sting out of it. He's right, anyway, Brittany loves it.

Puck grins back at her and pulls a sheet out from the middle of the pile.  _Love You More_  by Alexi Murdoch. "Works every time," he whispers as he hands it to her. He pats her on the shoulder and walks out of the room, whistling on the way out. 

The song is simple to learn and it only takes her a couple hours after school to get the chord progression down. Later that night after she plays the song for Brittany and the blonde girl shows her  _exactly_  how much she liked it, Santana thinks, not for the first time, that Puck is seriously underrated.

\--

She hears the song  _Blue Eyes_  by Cary Brothers in her car one day on the way to Puck's house. She gets so engrossed in the lyrics she almost runs a red light, but manages to get to his house safely. 

Puck stops plucking his guitar when she bursts into his room, a broad smile on her face and her guitar in hand. They spend the rest of the night locked in his room trying to learn the chords. 

That Saturday when Brittany tries to request a song, she slaps a hand over the other girl's mouth and tries to ignore the way her stomach flips over nervously. 

"I learned a song for you," she says softly and she feels really dumb because,  _hello_ , she always learns a song for Brittany. That's the tradition. But this feels different because the song says everything she's ever felt for Brittany and she just really wants the other girl to hear it. 

From the look on Brittany's face, her friend is kind of surprised at the statement, but there's a shy understanding there too. "Okay," she whispers when Santana removes her hand. "Play it for me." 

Santana takes a deep breath, prays she remembers all the lyrics and plucks the first chord out. Her eyes look everywhere around the room except at Brittany, but when she gets to the first chorus she can't help but lock eyes with her. 

Brittany smiles when Santana gets to  _you're the sweet to my mean_  and she thinks there's tears brimming in Brittany's eyes when gets to  _you don't know the greatness you are._  

When she finishes the song they just stare at each other, the open expression on Brittany's face sweeter than anything else she's ever experienced. Brittany kisses her after a minute, the guitar still sitting between them, before she whispers, "Play it for me again," against Santana's lips. 

Santana does. 

\--

They're twenty two and fresh out of college, still together and living in the shittiest apartment ever in downtown Chicago. It's different now that they're not in Lima. They can hold hands when they walk down the street, and Brittany can kiss Santana on the cheek when they're at the grocery store and when Santana introduces her to people she calls Brittany her girlfriend. 

Santana's guitar sits in the corner of their bedroom now, the same one Puck gave her when they were kids. Sometimes he comes to visit and they have a nostalgic jam session on the living room floor. Santana kind of has to pinch herself when it happens, because who would have thought she'd be best friends with Puck, but she is. He thinks it's really cute that she still plays the same guitar he gave her all those years ago, but he tries to encourage her to buy a new one. 

"Lopez, that thing was old when I gave it to. It's fucking ancient now," he says. 

"It plays just fine," she argues with a roll of her eyes. 

"I'm just saying, you should update that piece of shit someday." 

Puck ends up buying her a brand new guitar for her birthday one year, and she loves the thing, no lies, but when she's sitting in her apartment, Brittany curled up on one end of the couch and her on the other, she still picks up that old beat up classical to play. 

She plays Brittany a song almost every night now. Sometimes Brittany tries to get her to sign up for open mic night at the bar down the street from their building but Santana always says the same thing to her. "I learned how to play for you. Not for anyone else." Santana kind of thinks Brittany keeps telling her to do it just so she can hear Santana tell her she only plays for her. 

Things have changed since high school, but on Saturday night, when they're lying together, tangled up in the sheets of their bed, darkness all around them, Brittany's breath comes across her bare shoulder. 

"Play me a song," she whispers, with a smile Santana can feel against her skin. 

So Santana does. 

 _Blue eyes, you're the secret I keep._   


  
  
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End file.
